What To Do When The Networks Aren't Social

     Yesterday, the Internet was down all day.  Because we are in the process of selling our homes, I spend a couple of hours a day, pushing buttons, tweaking advertisement, making changes to the Website (Check out our Website and Pass it on to Interested Parties You Know), Twittering, Facebooking ("LIKE" Casita's Page), Writing e-zine type articles, and Blogging.  And, of course, wasting some time each day just web-surfing.  But it was not meant to be, yesterday.
     Instead, I did do some writing on the computer, made meals, read, and did my socializing with the out doors.  A good deal of every day is spent outdoors, as it is.  But, not having an Internet connection gave me a little more time to finish projects that were in limbo (this limbo being the non-spiritual euphemism for procrastination). 
     Today, we are back on-line, but have been busy, busy.  We spent morning in town, buying supplies to bring back to our home here at Casita Dos Arbolitos, in the quiet countryside of Mexico.  Quiet in the campo, the countryside, is a bragging right, especially in May.  The whole month of May is a fireworks fest, celebrating many holidays and the feast of Santa Cruz.  Each weekend, the fireworks are being set off, early in the morning, and late in the evening.  From our countryside vantage point, the sounds are muted.  Town people are always commenting on the fireworks; and we're always pointing out the peace of living out here.  Especially in the morning; fireworks begin around 5AM, sometimes earlier; while we are still sleeping.  We get up early and have coffee in the Patio Room, while listening to the faraway sounds fireworks and muted crowing of roosters of the roosters in the village.  As the sun begins to approach the horizon, various birds begin singing.  First, is the Poorwill, chirping its bouncy cadence.  Then doves and Scotts Orioles and others join in.  As the sun breaches the horizon, the woodpeckers start complaining about the fact that we have wrapped out wooden patio cover posts in mesh so that they can no longer dig holes in the posts.  The mesh doesn't stop them from trying.  Tag-teaming, the male and female take turns sitting on the posts, tapping a few times, then giving up and letting the other try.
     When we came home from town, we spent the next four hours in the kitchen.  Firstly, I had to restock my cookie supply.  Today's (and for the next few days) offering: Oatmeal Sesame Candied Sunflower Seeds Chocolate Chip.  After that, we were busy making our next Mexican Cuisine Dinner.  Tonight's Dinner was Tamales made with the Amarillo Estofado of two days ago; the sauce used to moisten the masa, and the meat and some sauce and a little Oaxacan string cheese were as filler.  Dessert was guavas basted in cinnamon syrup and filled with Coconut Creme.  I was prep cook drilling holes in the Coconuts, saving the water, then cracking the shells and saving, and then skinning, and then shredding the coconut meat.  We chilled the Aqua de Coco and added chilled rum and ice for a refreshing beverage, on this hot day.
     Now, the reverse of bird calls has nearly finished.  While I was writing this, the tiny sparrows that live in the jasmine vine on one of our Patio Roof Posts flew in and began their evening chatter.  This lasts just a few minutes then they are silent for the evening.  This evening ritual is a small scale version of the larger scale Grackle evening home coming; a tradition that has finally come to an end.  For decades, if not centuries (I'll have to look that up), the Grackles would come to roost in the large trees growing in the Jardin Principal, across from the Parroquia.  Unlike our tiny birds, with their sweet chirping that lasts a few minutes, the Grackles are big-voiced birds, with lots to say.  And while they were saying it and settling in, they would perform their evening toilet, literally, which dropped down onto the benches below and people sitting there.  As San Miguel de Allende grew into its own as a World Class Tourist Town, the Grackles were deemed a nuisance.  They had to go.  Nothing drastic, unless you were a Grackle that liked nesting in the Jardin.  The trees were modified, opened up to make them undesirable for sleeping in.  And so the Grackle moved on. 
     Just now, the sun is fully dropped below the horizon and the Poorwill has begun its evening song.  A good place to end.

Casita Dos Arbolitos---The FaceBook Page!

Casita Dos Arbolitos has its own FB Page.  Usually, it's got photos of some yummy meal that we've just had.  Take a look at it if you want some delicious meal ideas: Casita Dos Arbolitos on FaceBook!

Volcanic Rock, ROCKs!!

For years, both here in Mexico and for decades in California, I have made Guacamole.  I have made, what I and others considered, a good guacamole.  Certainly it was homemade with fresh ingredients; a good starting point.  And, most certainly, it far exceeded the typical Mexican restaurant in California and even some in Mexico.  Still, it never reached the point at which I considered excellent----a melding of flavors that I had found only in some very good restaurants in the US and many here.  Now, thanks to the goddess, also known as Diana Kennedy, I have the key---albeit a heavy stone one---to perfect guacamole.
Guacamole is, of course, that blending of avocados, onions, chiles, cilantro, tomatoes, and a dash of salt that is shuttled to the mouth by means of a tortilla chip (called "totopos" here).  It comes from the Nahuatl (the language people spoke here before they were "discovered.") word for avocado sauce.  And, like most "moles" or sauces, before there were blender, and Cuisinarts, there were grinding bowls call Molcajetes.  A Molcajete is a mortar made from volcanic rock.  It is used with a pestle, called a Tejolote (or "mano") also made from the same substance.  Both are hard and heavy.  The Molcajete is carved out of the gray or black volcanic rock in the shape of a bowl on a solid tripod.  The Tejolote is shaped like a round-bottomed cone or a cylinder rounded on both sides.  To test a Molcajete, before buying, the goddess suggests pouring a little water into it to see if it drains out too quickly; also, using the Tejolote to grind a bit in the bowl of the Molcajete, then checking for excessive dust/particles (a little dust before curing is not bad).  Either too much drainage or dust is a sign that the Molcajete will not serve you well.
Once you have you Molcajete, it must be cured before using it.  The tradition is to take a handful of rice and grind it in the Molacjete, until it is powdered.  Dump the powder, rinse and dry the bowl and repeat this until the rice is more white than gray.  When I cured my Molcajete, it took 4 grinding; and then I did another.
And now the bowl is ready for making the perfect guacamole:

2 Medium Avocados, pitted and halved.
1 Medium Tomato
1 Small Onion
1 1/2 Serrano Chiles (seeds or seedless, depending on your heat tolerance)
Some Cilantro Leaves
Some Salt
2 Cloves of Garlic (optional, but the way I like it)
1/2 a Lime (again, optional, but it adds complexity)

Roughly chop half the Onion, the Serrano Chiles, half the Cilantro, and the Garlic and place it in the Bowl of the Molcajete; add a dash of Salt .  Then grind the ingredients to a paste (and this is where the magic happens, this is the key, this paste whose flavors are distributed throughout).
Add the Avocados, a half at a time, and grind them into the paste.
Chop the Tomato into fine chunks.  Add half to the mixture, squeeze the lime over it and folding it in.  Taste and add more Salt, if necessary.
Chop the rest of the Onion and Cilantro and mix it with the rest of the Tomato and sprinkle it over the Guacamole.
Serve immediately (No, really, myths aside---like the pit will keep guacamole fresh for a long time---it's at it's very best when made and served.  Buen Provecho!!
One of the YouTube Videos (See the Rest Of Our YouTubes, here), which I posted, yesterday, features the molcajete.  Look for others, here; this along with recipes, both Mexican and Mexican-fushion cuisine.

Here Is A First Taste of Mexico. Buen Provecho!